Drumroll please…….
We are happy to announce that after much anticipation on the part of Inhabitat readers, Richart Lawson’s in-demand 9Volt Battery LED Lamp has finally gone into mass production, and is available for purchase. When we first debuted this cleverly cute little Battery Lamp – which works by simply popping the tiny lamp on any 9-volt you have lying around the house – we were inundated with requests to purchase the design; we even had several people tell us they would like to manufacture the light themselves. We are happy to say that now, if you want the clever little lamp, you can simply purchase it at Mathmos.co.uk!
When the 9-Volt lamp first made its appearance on Inhabitat, it was then called the 9Vo(l)tive. The 9Volt puts those extra 9-Volt batteries to use, in something other than your smoke detector, as an environmentally friendly LED light who’s ambiance represents that of nice candlelight. Better than a candle, this light can go everywhere with you and illuminates with just a flick of the wrist- the built-in tilt switch turns the light on when standing vertically and is turned off when lying horizontal. While the website is currently showing three different colors, the 9Volt is currently only available in white and red, but they are running a special offering 5 for the price of 4. Both lights appear the same when in the off position, so make sure you stand them on end and grab the right one before you go.
Thanks Alex for the tip.
+ 9Volt
Uh. What’s environmentally friendly about something that runs off of disposable chemicals? You can’t claim this is meant to be good for the environment unless at least the picture shows it being used with RECHARGEABLE batteries.
It’s a cool idea though. There’s just no statement here about sustainability.
There’s nothing environmentally friendly about it, except that it uses LEDs and it has that sort of clever-but-worthless “design” appeal that’s so popular these days.
Yeah, I’ve always thought it was a very neat aesthetic, but a slightly offensive product.
Also: we environmentalists are an awfully bitter lot, aren’t we?
[...] 9 volt LED light Published August 15th, 2007 Design Finally in mass production…nice. Link via inhabitat [...]
Yeah you guys are definitely bitter lot:P
No, but I agree. If I have a 9 volt battery lying around, I’ll keep it in my battery drawer until I have to replace the smoke detector battery in a year. They don’t go bad for a couple of years. I don’t need to come up with a use for extra ones.
Say it’s a tealight replacement or cute or whatever, fine, but there’s nothing green about it.
Popular Science had an article on how to make your own 9 volt LED using about $2.00 worth of parts and it was all built by hand and easily embedded into something else (like a little lamp or box or vase or anything you wanted. I made two and they were very easy to buy and put together. You can even do whatever color LED you want.
We are not claiming that 9 volts is an eco product – but i wanted to let you know that mathmos has developed 9 Volts specifically so that you can use it with re-charagable batteries if you want to.
josie– you’re right, mathmos doesn’t claim that these are green. But inhabitat is a sustainability-focused blog– I think people are more pointing that out than the fact that if they’re not eco-friendly, why are they here?
Either way, most AA and AAA batteries are available as rechargable, too.
I agree that using a disposable 9volt is not eco-friendly at all, but if used in tandem with a rechargeable 9volt it would be a green friendly product. Being in the hurricane belt this tiny LED light would come in very handy when the power is out for week s or even months due to its low power consumption.
cute product, despite its non-green use, but $25 each? no thanks.
Nifty idea, particularly in combination with a rechargable battery, but that price is just a bit too much for what is essentially an LED and a plastic shell. Neat idea, but too much $$$ for the average consumer to justify.
$25 each? It really ain’t easy being green.
[...] Lo hemos encontrado en Inhabitat [...]
[...] If you remember I presented once a DIY battery lamp idea. Now I am writing about the Mathmos 9 VOLTS LED Battery light, which I have found at Inhabitat. [...]
It is not available in white as this comment states. Only red and blue.
I could see them being a nifty solution in a poweroutage or emergency since it’s smaller than many flashlights – though am not sure how bright/helpful they would be especially in red or blue (white is the colour before it illuminates) For sure too $25 could buy a lot of candles or flashlights – and when there’s no mention of how long a battery can power it for or how bright it actually is, really cancel’s any desire in me to blow $25 on one.